Population Ratio of Recruits Per State Past 5-Years

Photo by: National Underclassmen Football Combine

Population Ratio of Recruits Per State Past 5-Years

Courtesy: Barry Every / National Underclassmen Combine           Release: September 18, 2012

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The National Underclassmen loves to play with numbers when it comes to recruiting. Have you ever wondered which state produces the most high school DI players based on its population? Basically what are the odds of you running into a DI football prospect in a particular state?  We have taken the 2010 census population of each state and divided it by the average number of recruits each state has produced over the past five years. Column one are the states listed in order of DI players per population. Column two is the current population rank of each state. Column three is the actual population of each state based the 2010 US Census. Column four is the five year average of the number of high school DI recruits a state produces each year. Column five is the ratio of recruits per overall state population. And finally column six is the NUC region of the country each state resides in. How do I look at these numbers? For example for every 54,488 people in Louisiana there is one high school DI signee. Louisiana happens to be 25th in state population but is number one based on the number of DI prospects it produces per total population of state. Let's break which states/regions actually produce more players per population. Louisiana produces the most players per state population followed closely by Alabama, Florida, and Georgia.  Surprisingly Hawaii produces the 5th most players based on their state population. The final five in the Top 10 in order are Mississippi, Texas, Ohio, Oklahoma, and South Carolina. Six of the Top 10 states that produce high school DI talent are in the Southeast region of the country. The Southwest region is the only other region of the country with more than one state in the Top 10. Three states have not produced any high school DI prospects over the past five years, Maine, Rhode Island, and Vermont. The Empire State is third in population yet produces very few DI football prospects based on population. For every 814,206 people in New York there is just one DI prospect coming out of high school each year. California which is number one in state population is only 16th in producing high school DI players each year per population. Illinois and Pennsylvania are the 5th and 6th most populated states in America. Yet they are 27th and 21st respectively in producing players per population. What about the District of Columbia? Well technically it is not a state and it would be like taking the population of any city in the USA and dividing that by the number of recruits a city produces. But for those who want to know D.C. produces an average of 9.4 DI players per year with a 2010 US Census population of 601,723. That would mean one in every 64,013 people in the district is a DI recruit in any given year. That would put D.C. between Georgia and Hawaii amongst the state rankings. What does this all mean? It could mean that the states that produce more players per population each year put more emphasis on the importance of football. It could also mean that the states towards the bottom either don't stress football or they are simply just not recruited that hard by DI colleges. Maybe these states stress sports other than football. Either way have fun with the numbers as the NUC looks to not only entertain but educate its fan base. Signees of the three military academies are not figured into these numbers. We would also like to thank the staff at Texas Football Magazine for taking the time to calculate the number if high school DI signees for all 50 states each year.

State Pop. Rank 2010 Census 5yr avg. Pop. Ratio Region Louisiana 25 4533372 83.2 54488 SE Alabama 23 4779736 83 57587 SE Florida 4 18801310 320 58754 SE Georgia 9 9687653 154.6 62663 SE Hawaii 40 1360301 21.2 64165 West Mississippi 31 2967297 44 67439 SE Texas 2 25145561 361.2 69617 SW Ohio 7 11536504 153.4 75205 MW Oklahoma 28 3751351 38.8 96684 SW South Carolina 24 4625364 41.2 112266 SE Utah 34 2763885 24.4 113274 West Arkansas 32 2915918 24 121497 SE Maryland 19 5773552 39.8 145064 East Tennessee 17 6346105 42.4 149672 SE Virginia 12 8001024 51.2 156270 East California 1 37253956 236.6 157455 West Michigan 8 9883640 60.6 163096 MW North Carolina 10 9535483 58.4 163279 SE Indiana 15 6483802 36.2 179111 MW Kansas 33 2853118 15.6 182892 MW Pennsylvania 6 12702379 68.6 185166 East New Jersey 11 8791894 45.2 194511 East Arizona 16 6392017 32.4 197284 West Nevada 35 2700551 13.6 198570 West Colorado 22 4919479 24.2 203284 West Delaware 45 897934 4.4 204076 East Illinois 5 12830632 61 210338 MW Idaho 39 1567582 6.8 230527 West Nebraska 38 1826341 7 260905 MW Kentucky 26 4339367 16.6 261408 MW Washington 13 6724540 25.4 264746 West Missouri 18 5988927 22.2 269771 MW Iowa 30 3046355 10.2 298662 MW Oregon 27 3831074 10.8 354729 West Wisconsin 20 5686986 15.2 374144 MW New Mexico 36 2059179 5.2 395996 West Minnesota 21 5303925 10.4 509993 MW Connecticut 29 3574097 7 510585 East West Virginia 37 1852994 3.4 544998 East Montana 44 989415 1.8 549675 West Massachusetts 14 6547629 10.8 606262 East South Dakota 46 814180 1 814180 West New York 3 19378102 23.8 814206 East Wyoming 50 563626 0.6 939377 West New Hampshire 42 1316470 1.2 1097058 West North Dakota 48 672591 0.6 1120985 West Alaska 47 710231 0.6 1183718 West Maine 41 1328361 0 None East Rhode Island 43 1052567 0 None East Vermont 49 625741 0 None East *District of Columbia  601723  9.4         64013  East